With the burgeoning growth of online social networks, consumers are growing increasingly accustomed and interested in sharing content relating to their personal lives and interests. For example, on Facebook alone, users share more than 5 billion pieces of content per week. Such pieces of content can include web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, and photo albums, but can also be custom tailored to display any sort of information. Upon sharing, users receive comments and feedback relating to the content, and in such a manner, they engage in virtualized social conversation.
With the advancement and proliferation of mobile phone technologies, an increasing number of users are engaging with and sharing content on social networks via their mobile devices. Sharing content via mobile devices adds other dimensions to that which can be accomplished via a personal computer. For example, users can instantly share on their social network profile a photo taken via their mobile phone. Furthermore, such a photo can be tagged with information regarding the user's location on the planet.
From such an unprecedented desire and capability to share information, a need emerges for a method and system for users to share information regarding their purchases, to express their styles of consumerism in a virtual setting, and to engage in conversation on the topic. Such a need is evident based on an analysis of the physical world where, for example, people tend to display or speak of their purchases and brand associations as a matter of everyday life. Likewise, people derive pleasure in announcing how often they shop, how much quantity or quality they purchase, and how much they save or splurge on a particular item.
Furthermore, an ever-present need exists for merchants and brands to more effectively market and advertise their products to potential consumers, a need that is fulfilled by the aggregation of data accumulated by consumers sharing their purchase information via social networks. Such data may, for example, include precise information regarding age, gender, social status, and location of a purchase with regard to the sales of a particular product or category of products. Such data can, for example, be employed to target advertisements in a precise manner, to analyze real-time sales trends, and guide retailers in stocking inventory.